


The Interruption

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Series: Unresolved Ever After [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, Lil' bit of fighting, Lil' bit of snuggling, One Shot, Remix, When will the main fic return from the war?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 16:24:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13791525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: Three years ago, Belle stayed to hear Rumpelstiltskin's explanation about the spell book in his nightstand.(One-shot Remix of The Unresolved)





	The Interruption

**Author's Note:**

> Anon asked; So, on prompts--An AU scene where Belle listened to Rumple when he was locked up after the black cauldron? Or any time, AU or not, where Belle listened to him?
> 
> Your wish is granted. :)

There was a spell book in the nightstand.

Rumple had all but sworn he hadn't practiced magic in a year, but here was proof he was lying. To her. Again. Belle shoved the damned book against his chest, rolling off the bed and scrambling for her clothes. This was a mistake. This was a huge mistake. She should have known better-

"Belle, Belle wait-"

"Wait for what?" she growled, yanking her dress on over her head. "I'm leaving-"

"Belle-"

"No, Rumpelstiltskin, I am not going through this again with you!" Belle snapped, snatching up her shoes. She'd put them on somewhere else, right now, she just needed to leave this room. "I trusted you and you mucked it all up again with your insane lust for power! I'm done with it!"

She had the door open, but the knob was yanked out her hand. There was ripple of light over the slamming door, and for a moment, she stood there in shock. But only for a moment. Then, Belle felt her face burning as she spun around to glare at the man on the bed. She could count on one hand the number of times Rumple used magic against her, and that was strictly teleporting her away from a location. Maybe she should have been frightened he had trapped her in the room, but honestly, that just made her angrier.

"Did you just _slam_ the door on me?!"

Rumpelstiltskin turned white, then pink. "I-Yes. I just-Would you just listen to me for a minute?"

"No I will not! You said you weren't using magic, and what the hell is that? A cookbook?"

Rumple stood up from the bed. He wasn't dressed for the knock-down, drag-out argument like Belle was ready to have. His shirt was falling off his shoulders and his belt buckle undone. He'd made an inhuman noise maybe four minutes ago when she'd been fumbling with his zipper, and scooped her up in his arms to drop her on the bed. How did they manage to go from everything being fine to nothing being okay so fast?

"It _is_ a spell book, that's...fair." He hesitantly admitted. "But I'm not using it for power, Belle, I promise."

"I can't trust your word, Rumple!" Belle cried. "You have broken so many promises, how can I?"

His mouth opened and closed for moment, like a fish out of water. Belle waited to see what he'd say next, only because she didn't think the door would open for her. Not yet. She didn't think Rumple would actually keep her in here against her will, but if he wanted so badly to try pleading his case-

"I'll make you a deal."

Belle frowned. "What deal?"

Rumple blinked. It was almost like he hadn't meant to say it out loud, but now that he had, she could almost see the wheels in his head spinning. "I'll...I'll make you a deal. Just give me ten minutes to explain-"

"Five." Belle countered. "If it's such a good reason, you'll do it in five."

"Five minutes to explain myself," Rumple agreed. "And if it's not good enough then...then you do whatever the hell you want, I can't change your mind."

"No you can't. But you have a deal."

Rumple nodded, and reached over to his nightstand to pick up his alarm clock. When he'd brought Belle home after the curse broke, she'd been puzzled by it. Even by Storybrooke standards, it was a bit of an outdated timepiece, but it would do for her to keep track of Rumple's five minutes. Honestly, she didn't think there was anything he could say to justify this. Even if he argued a technicality like he never "said" he'd given up magic.

"Alright. Start," Belle ordered, taking the clock and taking note of the time. Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds, four minutes and fifty-eight...

"I...I have no viable excuse for not telling you," Rumple began after wasting about ten seconds of his time on squirming and fidgeting his hands. Four minutes and forty-nine seconds... "I just-It was-Things were going so smoothly I didn't want to risk them until I had proof. Proof of my intentions. I know I say that intent is meaningless, but intentions would be my only defense here, because like you've said I have broken so, _so_ many promises to you. I can't win back your trust unless I give you a good reason, that's why I never said anything-"

"You've wasted thirty seconds on excuses, you know." Belle muttered. It was a snide thing to say, but she couldn't help it. A change came over Rumpelstiltskin's face, though. Something hardened.

"Fine!" He snarled. "Here's the explanation then: I didn't want to watch you die!"

What?

"What?"

"Oh, so glad I have your attention on that subject. Yes, Belle, I didn't want to watch you grow old and die, I didn't want to bury you, I didn't want to bury our son and his family beside you, while I go on living until someone kills me! How is that for an explanation! Does that meet your approval?"

Belle stopped paying attention to the clock in her hand. Somehow it had...had slipped her mind. The topic of Rumpelstiltskin's immortality had only really come up between them once. And at the time she'd been the barfly Lacey, who was primarily interested in obtaining eternal youth, and not concerned at all with outliving the man who could grant that wish. _Obviously_ Rumpelstiltskin hadn't let it slip his mind.

If he were truly being honest about this, then it was something he was deeply worried about.

"Is...is it anything like with the...um, with the hat?" she swallowed. She'd thought that the whole thing with Merlin's hat and Killian's heart had just been a scheme to free himself from the dagger's control, not necessarily affect other parts of the curse.

"No, no it's not-" The contemplative pause did not inspire confidence. "Well, it shouldn't be."

"It _shouldn't_ be?"

"I don't know!" Rumple threw up his hands, frustration plain on his face. "I've found two new ways to entrap myself, a new enchantment for magic suppression, but when it comes to actually breaking this damned curse? Nothing! When I say I haven't used magic in a year, I was honest about that. I haven't so much as used a summoning spell to find my missing keys. But I have been trying to write a new spell."

Belle pursed her lips. Well...that...that would be something different. She wasn't pleased by how he had twisted his words around, but...

She was familiar with most of Rumple's books on magic, but it was a very large collection that had come over with the various curses, and her estranged magpie of a husband always seemed to have something she'd never seen before tucked away in the shop or his house. She didn't know what was in this ruby-studded tome, but she recalled Rumple explaining spellcraft theory to her once. It was, with enough experience and skill, possible to weave two or more spells together to create a new one. Almost like breeding two animals to create one with the desired traits of both.

"How was it going to work?" she asked slowly. "This spell?"

Rumple grabbed the book, flipping to a specific page. He was probably under the impression Belle was still giving him five minutes to explain, and she supposed she should say something about that, but a mistrustful part of her wanted to keep him sweating just a minute more.

Turning the pages towards her, Rumple pointed to a passage on the left page. A spell for separating elements. Useful for the wizard toying with expensive, rare ingredients, so a note in the margins said. "I'm still figuring some things out, but this part is important. Theoretically I could separate the darkness from my mortal soul, but I haven't a way to contain-"

"The darkness would just find a new host, like before with Emma." Belle bit her lip sheepishly. "I'm sorry-"

"No, no. You are right, about that," Rumple wrinkled his nose. "And that's all assuming I wouldn't be ripping away something else. Like my soul from my body, or all of my memories, or my conscious mind. I've thought about perhaps reinforcing the hat, but there's no real way to test it beforehand. So...this is all I've been doing. Researching."

He closed the book, then, nervously wiping imaginary dust off the cover. The silence in the room was thick and stifling now. A brief peek at the clock ticking in Belle's hands said there was almost a full minute left, but Rumple seemed to have run out of words. Maybe that was a sign it was Belle's turn to say something. To explain.

"Have you been doing this alone?" she began slowly, watching the second hand scoot along. "The research, I mean?"

Rumple sighed. "Well...yes. The only person I've thought to ask is Henry, but...he's a good lad, smart lad even, but I'm sure the rest of his family would misconstrue my intentions."

Belle hummed. "The only thing you've managed to teach them is intent is meaningless."

"Well, it's difficult to teach them when they won't learn," he shrugged, the little wobble of his head almost making her smile. Almost. "Why do you ask?"

"Because...because there are two choices, here, the way I see it." Belle swallowed, standing a little straighter. "For me. My first choice is to leave, trusting you'll figure things out on your own. Or I can help you."

Rumple's brows pressed together, his mouth turning in a slow frown. "You just...you just said you can't trust me. You're right Belle, I haven't given you a reason-"

"And you can honestly say you trust me?" Belle laughed weakly, waving the clock. "I just gave you five minutes to explain yourself, fully intending to storm out in a huff. I don't...maybe I don't trust you, not fully, yet. But I do trust..."

What did she trust? All she had here was her judgement. Which was proven to be faulty, many times before. And if this were anything else, Belle probably wouldn't have trusted her own judgement here, wouldn't have offered her help. But Rumple wasn't trying to obtain more power, here. He was trying to become a mortal man. What's more, Rumple would never, ever use their child against Belle. Not as a pawn, not as a manipulative tool, not as emotional blackmail.

And he'd already outlived one child...that was a pain no parent should have to bear.

"I trust that you mean it," she concluded. "I believe you're heart is in the right place here."

The confusion remained, but a line of tension in Rumple's shoulders softened. "I...don't understand. Why aren't you upset?"

"I am," Belle confessed. "But I've been angrier with you before. I mean, here, no one's been hurt, you don't have much of a scheme. I'm just sort of...regular-wife-upset with you, not wife-of-the-Dark-One-upset. If that makes any sense to you...?"

A tiny laugh escaped him. "Not to anyone else, but yes, it does to me..."

* * *

It was _not_ an instant fix.

Two more shouting matches occurred within the next two hours. One of which involved Belle finding her shoes and storming out the house for about two minutes before returning.

Not only was it fucking freezing out, but she felt so tired of this. The constant, tumultuous, unending chaos their relationship had devolved into.

So, an appointment with Archie was booked.

Archie had gently suggested, when Rumple nearly walked out on the appointment, that they might try separate therapy sessions at first. For a few weeks. Rumple hesitantly agreed, and Belle initially disagreed but thought it would be necessary to get her estranged husband to go.

Turns out? No. Actually she did have some issues of her own to work on. Maybe a few less centuries than Rumple, but...not something worth bragging about, by far.

Oddly enough, though, it was something to bond over. Oliver didn't quite seem to understand what Mama and Papa were doing, even when they tried explaining the concept of therapy, but he seemed pleased enough that they were doing more family outings and dinners together.

Belle wanted to cry, (and had...multiple times,) over how much easier it all was with a professional helping them along. Why hadn't they tried this sooner? Like when Archie suggested it while she was pregnant, or way back when Rumple was first freed from Zelena? Or when he was temporarily free of the Dark One's curse, or...so many missed opportunities, so much wasted time.

It was a little funny though.

As much as Belle's marriage was improving, slowly but surely, her other relationships were changing too. Her father's snide, petty remarks aside, a few other people did start coming around the library to ask how things were...

* * *

As the Cauldron-Born filled the street that sunny Wednesday afternoon, Belle had pulled Oliver, Astrid and her daughter Opal, and Garrick into the pawnshop and locked the door. She'd only unlocked it once, her with armed with an antique iron poker that was closest to the door, and Astrid with a colorful burst of magic to shield little Robbi from the zombie that had caught her. Bony, skeletal fingers had carved deep lines in Robbi's left arm and it had scratched up her chest and torn into her throat before Belle and Astrid intervened. While Belle (accidentally, and to her horror,) knocked the head off the zombie's neck, Astrid scooped Robbi up and they dashed back to the shop with Zelena-who Belle hadn't noticed until then,-right behind them.

They'd applied as much first-aid as they could, since Zelena's magic never worked on Robbi, before suddenly the zombies all fell over dead, er, again in the streets. Belle had been more concerned with helping get Robbi and the other victims to the hospital, where two people had died from their horrific injuries, than with what had caused the danger at the time. When she'd spotted Emma and Killian in a corridor checking over their little daughter Cleo, she'd had to ask what happened.

Emma wouldn't look her in the eye, but Killian had been all too happy, very much too happy, to say that "the Crocodile" had been found in the cemetary where the Cauldron was set up.

Belle saw red and demanded to know where he was now. She didn't remember the march to the cell except that she was mad, so mad she wasn't afraid of the severe-looking nurse sitting at the desk and walked right past her to the locked cell opposite to the side where Isaac was kept. (They gave him a regular pen and papers and he was happy as a clam to write his own stupid stories wherein no one but his chosen few got happy endings, and Belle often wondered if he'd been the one to ruin her life with that principle.) She only came too when she stepped inside, David having the good sense to let her in without telling her "no", and she met Rumple's gaze where he sat on the cot.

She flung her arms around him not a second later.

"Oh my god, are you alright?" Belle sighed, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "Are you alright? Robbi Mills almost had her throat torn out by one of those...things, I was so worried about you-"

"I-I'm mostly alright...wait, where's Oliver-"

"He's fine, we hid in the pawnshop," Belle kissed Rumple's cheek. "He's upstairs with Henry right now. What was this about the Black Cauldron?"

Rumple shook his head, winding his arms tighter around her. He was shaking, if she wasn't mistaken. "I-I don't know. I was out collecting rent when Henry and I-I saw _them_ appearing, we went to the graveyard and it was already set up. The dead were rising and...and B-Bae's-"

"Shh, shh, it's alright, it's alright now. The worst of it is over." She'd figure out that part later, when they were both a bit calmer. Hopefully.

"They think I did it, Belle. They think I activated the Cauldron, I was leaving the graveyard to get help for Henry and they brought me straight here!" The frustration in Rumple's voice hurt her heart. After all this time, he was still treated as the stock villain. "I didn't even get a chance to defend myself, it-I stopped the Black Cauldron-"

"What? How?"

"I...I put the Dark One in it. The curse is alive, so..."

Belle pulled back enough to look her husband in the eye. "You could have killed yourself! Why would you try something so dangerous?!"

"Well...at least I stopped Henry from jumping in there like he suggested-"

"He _what_?!"

"Exactly! So-"

Belle rolled her eyes, embracing Rumple tight enough he gave a slight wheeze. "God help me if Oliver is ever half so dramatic as you and your grandson are...I'll be gray before I'm forty."

Rumple gave a soft, weak laugh, drawing her to sit on his lap. It took a bit of time for his words to have a full impact on Belle, though, as big as they were. He'd sacrificed the Dark One. Three years of searching, fruitlessly, for a solution to eliminate the curse, and by a twist of fortune amidst a great disaster, it was gone just like that.

"So...you're just...you, now?" she said, brushing her hand over his soft, cropped silver hair. "No more Dark One? No more curse?"

"No more magic," he grimaced, wiggling his right foot. He was going to need his cane...where did that end up anyway? She thought it was in the umbrella stand in the foyer, or maybe it ended up in the closet? She'd have to look for it. "Not that they believe me, of course."

 _They_ were the Charmings, most likely. Someone would have to break it to their dubious police force that they'd grabbed the wrong man, so that Rumple could come home sooner rather than later, but then they'd probably want help finding the real suspect. Resting here for just a bit longer wouldn't hurt, then they'd get this straightened out. Belle kissed Rumple, gently.

"I believe you."

**Author's Note:**

> I PROMISE I'M GETTING AROUND TO THE UNRESOLVED AGAIN SOON OKAY! REALLY! IT'S JUST TAKING SOME TIME! *stabs it with a stick*


End file.
